A Lancitty Hanukkah
by IamLokiLocked
Summary: Kitty celebrates the first night of Hanukkah with Lance, now that their relationship is 'on' again. After spending some quality time at the Brotherhood boarding house, Kitty hopes to keep it that way. "When you think about us, what do you want?" "You. I want you, Kitty." Lance/Kitty. Holiday fluff. Two-shot.
1. Part 1

**A/N** **:** I am definitely still working on my lengthy ensemble piece post-Season 4, but in the spirit of the holidays I wanted to write a two-shot with Kitty and Lance (~ Season 2) celebrating Hanukkah. I hope you enjoy it! Comments are love. :) Happy holidays to you and yours, dear readers!

* * *

It was the first night of Hanukkah.

Kitty had an eight a.m. flight to Chicago, and a connection to Northbrook, tomorrow so she could spend most of the holidays with her parents. But she was happy to exchange gifts today with her friends – and with Lance. They had plans to hang out at his place after dinner (because there was no way he was stepping foot in the mansion as long as Scott was around), and Kitty had bought him a gift. She went with Jean to shop because one, she knew that Jean wouldn't lecture her and two, Jean had had a _ton_ of boyfriends so she knew what kinds of things guys liked.

This was Kitty's favorite time of year because the mansion foyer was so decked out in Christmas lights and window decals, and Kurt strategically stuck mistletoe on all the doorframes. Mr. Logan carried in the Christmas tree – all the while grumbling like the Grinch - and everyone decorated it with ornaments from the store, or ones they'd made. There was a surplus of hot cocoa and gingerbread in the kitchen – and Kitty snuck a plateful of gingerbread men into a Ziploc bag. _She_ didn't bake them, but she helped to decorate them with icing sleeves and buttons.

Her phone buzzed and she checked her texts. _Here._ Lance offered to pick her up (which was great, because there was no way her friends would willingly drop her off at the Brotherhood boarding house). Kitty put the cookies, the gift, and something _else_ in her messenger bag and pulled on her coat. Luckily almost everyone was distracted by the holiday music and the egg nog – it was their last big get-together before most people went home for winter break – and Kitty promised she'd be back by curfew.

She let herself out and made her way down the slippery path to the driveway and she saw Lance's jeep through the gate and waved to him. She phased through it with her things and grinned when he leaned over to open the passenger's door.

"Hi," she said, a little out of breath from the walk across the Institute grounds. She got into the jeep and pulled the door shut.

"Hey Kitty." Lance smiled at her – and he hardly ever smiled at anyone – and switched the gears into 'drive'. "How's it going?"

"Good. Great. Things are crazy," everyone was really getting into the holidays now that final exams were over. She slid her bag off her shoulder and holding it in her lap. "How are you?"

"Good," he replied. Kitty had a feeling the Brotherhood boarding house was not nearly as festive a place to be during the holidays – which was why she wanted to do this before she left town. "Uh, happy Hanukkah."

Kitty grinned at him. He remembered. She asked him how he celebrated on the phone and he said he didn't. His parents died when he was really young and he never talked about his time in foster care. Kitty didn't ask because she didn't know what to say – and he acted like it wasn't a big deal, but she was sad for him. She couldn't imagine not spending the holidays with her family. She was really close to her parents. "Happy Hanukkah, Lance."

They talked about school and he asked about her plans in Northbrook, and they were both consciously avoiding bringing up their respective 'teams'. It was the only way they could hang out without it turning into a fight. She _really_ liked him. He could be funny - but he hated getting laughed at – and he played the guitar, which she thought was really cool. He really loved his jeep – even though she didn't care about cars, she liked that he liked it – and it was kind of cute to get him to talk about it, because he could get pretty animated.

By far the thing she liked most about Lance was the fact that he was a good person. He was honest and he was brave, and selfless, and he'd risked his life to help her – and that meant a lot to her. It was way more important than fluff or flowers. Being with Lance made her realize what mattered to her and it didn't have be the Hallmark movie special because Lance wasn't really a flowers guy, he _definitely_ wasn't a poetry guy, but she knew he cared about her. She thought he had potential, and he was already a hero to her in a lot of ways. Now his _friends_ , on the other hand…

"So where is everybody?" she asked him as he pulled into the shadow of the boarding house. She tried to keep her tone light but honestly, she just didn't _like_ those guys. And she didn't like the way Lance was around them.

"Pietro's got some dates," because apparently some girls _did_ like dating huge jerks, "And I told Toad and Blob to get lost." He glanced at Kitty when he said it and she tried not to smile too openly. Since Tabby was at the mansion hanging with Amara, it would be just the two of them. In this whole big house.

"Great." She hoped she sounded 'cool'. "Because I have _such_ a Hanukkah night planned for us since it is your first ever," enthusiasm curbed her nervous energy, and she could blame her blush on the cold air. "You have a working TV, right?" she asked him as she got out of the jeep and picked up her bag.

"You got that?" he asked her, when he saw the size of the bag, "You want me to carry it?"

"Lance, I'm not going to let you carry your own gift," besides, she had a surprise in here for him and she didn't want to ruin it by letting him see it early.

He held up his hands in a mock 'okay, you win' gesture and said, "Yeah, we got a TV. Again." Again? What happened to the first one? Maybe it was better not to ask. "Why?"

Kitty didn't answer but she followed him up to the house. "I don't know if I've ever been inside this place," she admitted as he opened the door – he didn't have to unlock it or anything – and she stepped into the foyer.

"I tried to clean it up a little," he said by way of apology, and the inside was… kind of a wreck. It was definitely not the mansion, and she could see where it had been nice once upon a time, but clearly they didn't have a chore schedule. And she thought she saw Toad slime on the ceiling. _Ugh_.

"It's… fine." She couldn't bring herself to lie and say 'great' because it definitely was not 'great' – but she could see when Lance showed her into the living room that there weren't any pizza boxes or beer bottles around. There was furniture that seemed… sturdy-ish. The TV was definitely the nicest thing in the room (she hoped they didn't _steal_ it).

She sat down on the couch and so did he, and it didn't collapse (so it seemed pretty safe). She'd been looking forward to this all week, ever since she got his gift. "So, the first thing we have to do is light the candles." Kitty couldn't bring him a Christmas tree, but she _did_ have a small aluminum menorah that she picked up at the store. It was not expensive at all, and it came with a pack of striped blue candles.

"All of 'em?"

Kitty smiled. "No. The way Hanukkah works is that you light one candle on the first night, two candles on the second, and then on the _eighth_ night everything is lit." She opened up the package and she put the menorah on the coffee table in front of them. She set one candle in the rightmost holder.

"I got a lighter."

Kitty had just realized that she totally forgot to grab the matches from the kitchen – she smiled gratefully to Lance. "That'd be great." He sat back down and she took the lighter. Three tries later, she was able to light the middle candle, "This is called the _shamash_ , and it's the one that you use to light the other candles." She recited the blessings – because she wasn't a good singer, like her mom – in Hebrew, the ones she'd memorized as a little girl, and then lit the first candle. She put the _shamash_ in its holder and recited the _haneirot hallalu_.

"That's it?" Lance asked her when it was finished, and Kitty nodded.

"Yeah. We do that every night," she replied, "And we usually put the menorah in the window at home." The one that belonged to her parents was beautiful, it was super old. It was the one her dad had grown up with so it'd been in the family forever. "And there are dreidel games, which are fun." Kitty opened her bag again and pulled out a box wrapped in blue paper and tied with a silver ribbon. Instead of a bow, there was a little mesh bag of chocolate coins in gold foil. She gave the gift to Lance. "These are Hanukkah coins. It's what we play for at my house."

"Anybody ever play for real money?" he asked.

Kitty gave him a look. "That's _not_ what Hanukkah is about, Lance." Maybe some people did, but not in her family. "I have another gift for you," she gave him the gingerbread cookies, "We made – I mean, _I_ didn't make them but I helped decorate – these yesterday. They're really good." She wished she had some of those Hanukkah tins that her grandmother used to send brownies, but all she had were plastic bags. " _Annnnd_ -"

"Kitty, hold on." She reached back into the bag for the heaviest item of all – but Lance stopped her. "I got you a gift too. Lemme grab it." He went upstairs and she saw bits of plaster flake off from the ceiling where his footsteps landed one floor above. This building was totally falling apart. She couldn't believe he was _living_ here.

When he returned, he had a small gift but it was beautifully wrapped in blue with a big silver bow on it. "Did you wrap that yourself?" she asked him, impressed.

"What? No." He took one look at the box and shrugged, "There was this woman at the j-" he stopped himself short of giving it away, "They did it, uh, there," was all he said. "But I picked it out." Sort of. Actually, Pietro had to help him out (and he complained the whole time about having to go to the mall for the X-Cat). Lance didn't have a lot of experience getting gifts because the girls he used to… uh, not really 'date', sort of… look, they weren't like Kitty. He'd never gone with a girl like Kitty before, so this was… different. Not in a bad way, though.

"You didn't have to get me a gift." But she was excited that he did.

"You didn't have to get me one either," he replied.

Kitty dismissed that by picking up his gift and giving it to him. "You go first," she encouraged, "I want to see what you think." She held her present in her lap and watched as Lance tore through the paper – and the box – in a way that would have made her mom cringe. Kitty's mom always tried to save boxes during the holidays.

Lance opened the box, balled up the tissue paper, and pulled out her gifts. Kitty gave him a scarf, dark, olive green, so dark it was nearly black. And some new black gloves (these ones didn't have holes in the fingers like his old ones). She would have liked to get him a jacket but the good ones were _really_ expensive and she didn't really know his size. She was a little nervous because, okay, she'd never seen Lance wear a scarf before in his life _but_ maybe that was because he didn't have one. And New York was no joke in the winter.

"Do you like it?" she asked him anxiously, worried by his silence. "And the gloves? I wasn't sure if they'd fit," she bought them based on what Jean knew _Scott's_ glove size to be – but she wasn't about to tell Lance that, "So if you need me to exchange them, I can totally do that. I saved all the receipts."

"Kitty, they're great," Lance said, practically cutting her off. He smiled at her. "Best gift I ever got." Really? Did he mean that? It made her wonder how many times no one ever got him anything… "Thanks."

Kitty couldn't stop smiling. She felt like such a dork. "You're welcome."

He put the scarf and the gloves on the table, and tossed the box on the floor. "Your turn."

"Okay." Kitty carefully slid her finger under the tape on the sides and unwrapped her gift without ripping the paper. It was habit, mostly. It was a jewelry box. She glanced at Lance and he was watching her – and if she didn't know better, she'd have thought _he_ was nervous. She opened the box and saw a sterling silver bracelet with blue gemstones in it. It almost matched her eyes.

"Lance," Kitty gasped happily, tugging the bracelet free of its case, "It's _beautiful_. Will you put it on me?" She undid the clasp and held it out to him.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, and it took him a few tries to get it on her wrist, "I'm glad you like it."

"I _love_ it." It was just the right size too, she realized, once he'd gotten the clasp to snap back in place. She held up her wrist and it shone so prettily in the candlelight of the menorah. "Thank you so much." Kitty leaned forward and kissed him chastely on the cheek. She pulled away, a little, and he put one hand under her chin to turn her face towards him. Then he kissed her.

Kitty loved the way Lance kissed her. It made her heart beat so fast when his hand slid from her chin to her cheek, where he tucked her hair behind one ear. His fingers brushed her throat and she swore she was seeing stars. His other arm was around her waist, pulling her closer and she didn't resist. He deepened the kiss and she felt for his shoulders with her eyes closed, touched the roughness of his vest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

She ended up in his lap, straddling his tattered jeans with her own (from Old Navy), and it wasn't until he slid one hand under her shirt, cradling her lower back, that she… kind of came to her senses. The slight tremoring of the house helped, too. That was him, not her. "Lance," Kitty pulled away breathlessly, and said the name against his lips. He just kissed her again. She tried again, after a few seconds of _god, he's such a good kisser_ which made it hard to concentrate. " _Lance_ , seriously. I don't want your friends walking in on us."

His eyes looked so dark when they focused on her, and he just grinned. "Not gonna happen, Pretty Kitty," he assured her, kissing her jaw when she turned her face away to avoid his lips. "I told 'em I'd bury 'em if they showed up early."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He kissed her again, and she let him. She kept getting distracted.

" _Lance_." This time Kitty untangled her fingers from his hair and put them on his shoulders to push away, because she definitely needed some distance to think. "We should stop."

"Why?" He got his hand out from under her shirt and wrapped both arms around her back. "Man, I like you like this."

"Like what?" She couldn't handle the way he was looking at her, so she looked down between them.

"With me." That made her blush, and Lance took advantage of that to run one hand up her back and dig his fingers gently into her ponytail. He pulled it loose. Kitty never wore her hair down, but when Lance tossed the band aside it tumbled down a couple inches past her shoulders. "You are so hot."

"I am _not_ hot." Kitty laughed a little. She was not 'hot'. She was 'cute', she thought, on a good day (like, a very good day). She wasn't Jean, or even Tabby. She felt like she was average.

"You are," he said roughly, "To me."

That totally got her. Not the words, exactly, but the way he said it. It was the truth. Kitty kissed him hard and forgot all about distance for the next five minutes. _Then_ she remembered again, just barely, why she tried to pull away in the place. "Lance, we _really_ should stop." He disagreed. Big surprise. "No, I just- _Lance_ ," she tried to get his attention, and took his face in her hands. "I brought something fun for us to do." To celebrate. It was the thing she was most excited about until he started kissing her.

"This _is_ fun," he replied in a voice that made her squirm, and tried to kiss her again.

"No, I'm _serious_. Lance, I really want to play. Come on." She dropped her hands from his face and rested them on his forearms to encourage him to let her go. "I'll just phase if you don't," she warned him when he still seemed reluctant to switch gears.

"Alright," he caved, grumbling as he let her go, "I got a feeling whatever 'fun' you got planned is not as fun as that."

"Maybe not," Kitty acknowledged, climbing off his lap and patting his knee comfortingly, "But it's still pretty fun. Are you ready?"

Lance shifted in his seat. "Yeah. Wow me." She ignored the sarcasm.

Kitty reached into the bag and pulled out what she had on loan from the Institute. "So, I just borrowed this for tonight but…"

He leaned forward with actual interest. "Is that a Game Cube?"

"It is," Kitty replied with a big smile. Plus two controllers. And most importantly? She held up the game. " _Mario Kart: Double Dash_. Have you ever played?" Lance shook his head. He'd never had that kind of stuff - couldn't afford it. Bobby taught Kitty how to play, and now she really liked it. "Well, tonight's your lucky night. We are gonna race." It was a really popular game at the Institute, and entertaining for the spectators. Sometimes they had 'competitions', and there was a lot of popcorn involved.

"What does the winner get?" Lance wanted to know, taking the game from her and glancing at the back of the case.

"Good question," Kitty admitted – because she hadn't thought that far ahead, "How about…" she smiled at him, "… the winner gets to decide what we do next."

That _really_ peaked Lance's interest, and she didn't need to be telepathic to know why. "I'm in," he said immediately, "Give me the console, I'll see what I can do." While he was trying to figure out the knot of wires behind the TV to hook everything up, he added belatedly, "You know I'm not gonna go easy on you, right?"

Kitty scoffed lightly, toying with her new bracelet. "Oh _please_. Like I need you to." She was an X-Man, thank you very much. She could handle _any_ challenge. And this? It was going to be a piece of cake.


	2. Part 2

Kitty brought the video game because she was trying to think of something they could do together, that didn't cost money, that he might be into. She knew what he'd rather be doing, she could still feel his hands as she tugged down the back of her shirt and pushed her hair out of her eyes... but she just wasn't sure how far she wanted to go, and she was a little nervous to be in the house alone with him. It wasn't about trust. She trusted him. But they'd only gotten back together, like, a week ago. And Kitty wanted to prove to herself - and to her friends - that she and Lance had a real relationship. They could make this work. It wasn't all fighting and making up in the jeep and... fighting again.

Lance hooked up the colored wires to the back of the TV and dug around for the remote. Then he clicked through a few options on 'input' and nothing came up. There was nothing warming up in the console either. "Kitty, you sure this thing works?"

"What?" He caught her staring at him, and raised his brows. "Yeah, of course it works." She got up and crossed the room to crouch down in front of the TV next to Lance. She tried the 'power' button, and nothing happened. The light didn't even light up as 'red' (off, but plugged in). She double-checked what Lance had done with the cords behind the TV but everything looked good. "Jamie was just playing it today," she insisted, "It was totally fine this afternoon."

"Something happened to it," he replied, "It ain't coming on."

The Game Cube was totally fried. "What-" she hesitated in sudden realization, "Oh my god, I _phased_ it."

"When?"

Kitty buried her face in her hands with an embarrassed groan, sitting on the floor. Her voice was muffled as she mumbled in response, "When I was coming out to meet you," because she walked right through the fence like an idiot. Her heart sank. She raised her head. "I am _so_ in trouble. Everyone's going to be pissed."

"Over some video game?" he asked dubiously, "Don't you guys have a ton of other stuff to do?"

"Yeah, but we only have one Game Cube."

Lance didn't roll his eyes but Kitty could see in his face that he wasn't taking this seriously. She frowned at him and he fumbled for a response, settling on, "Hell, Kitty," he was doing the best he could to come up with something vaguely sympathetic for what he thought was stupid, "Just tell 'em I broke it." That's what they'd think anyway.

"No way," she couldn't believe he'd even suggest that. She would never let him take the blame for something dumb that _she_ did. "I took it, I broke it, I need to replace it." That was the only solution she could see: she had to go to the store and pick up a new one, and bring it home (if no one noticed, maybe she didn't have to admit that she took it in the first place).

"Those things are expensive."

"I know." Lance knew better than to suggest she get Xavier to cover it - even though that'd be a lot easier (and cheaper) than what she was thinking. Kitty glanced hopefully to him, and he knew what was coming. "Will you give me a ride?"

"You wanna do it now?" That didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed.

"Please?" When else was she going to do it? It had to be now because she didn't want to go home empty-handed.

"Yeah, alright," he sighed, "I'll get my keys."

"Thanks," she put a hand on his arm when he started to stand, "I'll make it up to you, I promise." His expression softened and Kitty gave him a quick kiss. Then he helped her up and she followed him to the front door.

* * *

It only took an hour - even with the holiday traffic - and Kitty carried the new and in-perfect-working-condition gaming console into the boarding house. The first thing she wanted to do was try it out. Lance was being a really good sport. She showed him how to use the controller and how to select his player and vehicle customization.

"Why would you pick _Bowser_?" she asked him with a laugh, "Of all the characters..."

"It's the only one that doesn't look weird."

Kitty begged to differ. "He's a giant turtle with spikes," she pointed out, "That's totally normal," not, "Plus, he's the bad guy."

"Yeah, I know." Lance played one of the old Mario games when he was a kid with one of his foster brothers. He couldn't remember the guy's name now - it was a long time ago 'cause by the time he was twelve, he was in a group home - but he remembered the game. Sort of. "Do you always play that girl?"

"Princess Peach is the best." Everything she drove was pink. She was Kitty's favorite character, and in Double Dash she liked to pair her with Yoshi (that was Kurt's go-to character - and they did make a great team). "And she's going to kick Bowser's butt."

Lance smirked in response. "You're all talk, _princess_."

"Oh, we'll see who's all talk," Kitty replied, and she selected the Star Cup. It was one of her favorites, and she thought the 'Sherbet Land' track - with the ice skaters in those creepy little ghost masks - seemed appropriately festive for mid-December. The split screen appeared with Peach on top, Bowser on the bottom and after a few seconds, the countdown began. Three... two... _one_.

Kitty hit 'A' for a rocket start and Peach shot into first place. "What's that? 'All talk'? I don't _think_ so," she declared in a giddy, sing-song voice, as her character turned the first corner, blew straight through the rainbow question mark, and skated across the rink into the cavern. Her first 'item' was a banana peel - not super useful - but she was feeling confident.

" _Shit_." Lance got off to a slower start - and he was in fourth until somebody hit his character with a red shell. Bowser spun out of the control and ended up in sixth.

"Come on, Lance, you can't let _Mario_ get the best of you," Kitty urged him as the little plumber in the red hat swerved in front of his kart. She was so busy glancing at _his_ screen that as she started her second lap, Princess Peach ran right into an iceberg. That knocked Kitty into second place.

"Got it." Bowser got a mushroom and accelerated past his Italian-stereotype-of-a-foe.

At the start of the third - and final - lap Kitty had pulled back in first. Lance had been all over the place - not a bad job, by the way, for someone who was playing for the first time - and he was in fifth when he got the spiny shell.

"Oh no, don't shoot that."

"Why not?"

"It's gonna go straight for me!" That's what the item did - it targeted the person in first. "And I'm so close to winning! Don't-" He shot it. He shot the blue shell at her. "You _jerk_ _! You blue-shelled me!_ "

"Didn't I say I wasn't gonna go easy on you?"

Kitty could hear the warning sounds of the impending attack blaring out of the TV but she couldn't get around it - and no kidding, literally one turn away from the finish line the blue shell smashed into the cart. By the time Princess Peach righted herself, Kitty pulled into fourth place.

Lance? He got third.

Kitty tossed down her controller and immediately scooted over into swatting range and smacked him in mock outrage, "I can't believe you did that. I _had_ that gold medal!"

"My bad." He did not look even remotely apologetic. In fact, he was smug. Kitty moved to hit him again for the smirk and caught her by the wrist and pulled her close. "Looks like I win."

"What? No way, neither of us won." The scoreboard on the screen spelled it out for them.

"I beat you. That means I win."

"So not how it works," Kitty protested, trying to improvise a loophole as Lance put down his controller and turned towards her. He still hadn't let go of her wrist, but he wasn't hurting her so she didn't phase out of his grasp, "If it's not first place, it doesn't count. We have to rematch."

"That wasn't in the rules." He pinned her back against the couch, kneeling over her. His weight indented the whole thing, and she was briefly worried that with both of them on one side of this old sofa, it was going to tip over.

Kitty smiled up at him and her voice was a little unsteady when she challenged, "Since when do you follow the rules?"

She could hear the ego in his words when he replied, "I don't." He kissed her and released his hold on her wrist. Kitty interlaced her fingers with his and squeezed when she felt his tongue brush against hers. Lance ran his other hand down her side, brushing skin where her shirt had gotten hiked up from wriggling against the couch cushions and she laughed into the kiss because it tickled. She nearly bit his lip by accident, and he grinned against her mouth.

With an arm around her waist, he shifted positions and Kitty ended up on her back on the couch - and he was trying to help her, but he didn't notice where she'd left her controller and the back of her head _smacked_ right into it. "Ow! Oh God, _ow_."

"What's wrong?"

"This... _thing_." Kitty let go of Lance to reach under her head for the joystick digging into her neck. She pulled it free and he took it from her, dropping it on the floor. "Hey, watch it! Last thing we need is to have to go buy another one of _those_."

"That fucking game," he muttered in response.

"It's still on," Kitty reminded him, although she didn't know how he could have forgotten. The music was still blaring loud and clear from the TV - and it was, like, obnoxiously upbeat. "Isn't this totally romantic?" Kitty started to laugh, "It's right out of a chick flick." No, no it wasn't. You would never have this kind of a soundtrack while making out on the couch.

"I'm gonna shut this shit off."

"Are you sure?" she teased him, "You don't love it? It's not your new favorite song?"

" _No_." Lance didn't think she was being funny. He reached for Kitty's controller to turn off the music. He only ended up hitting 'start' for the next race. "Goddamnit." Kitty covered her mouth with one hand to try to stifle the laughter as Lance got off the couch and tried to find the remote. She took advantage of his absence to push herself up into a sitting position. She drew her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, watching him with amusement.

"You wanna give me a hand?" he asked her, and Kitty shook her head.

"I'm kind of enjoying the show," she replied innocently.

It looked like he was thinking about some kind of comeback, but then his eyes swept the floor again and he saw the remote. "Found it." _Finally_. He turned off the TV and the music abruptly cut out - it was pretty repetitive stuff, so Kitty thought that was a good call.

Her good humor faded slightly when he looked at her from across the room. His gaze was heated when it met hers, a dark brown that looked almost black in the uneven light of the boarding house, and Kitty bit her bottom lip. He followed that movement and closed the distance between them in three strides or less. When he kissed her this time it was demanding and a little rough, but he cradled her head against the arm of the couch and knelt between her legs so she didn't feel the press of his entire body weight on top of hers.

"Lance," Kitty pulled away and her voice was breathy. She had to try twice more to get his attention. "You were my first kiss." She had never confessed that to him before, she guessed because she didn't want to sound like a loser.

"What?" His gaze was totally unfocused, and Kitty blushed. Her gaze kept drifting to his lips. He was amazing, _it_ was amazing, he made her feel... like she had lightning running through her body. Everything felt so good and so intense and it turned her brain to mush. She could barely string those five words together - and now he wanted her to repeat them?

"I mean, my first real kiss," she managed, "It was you." And he could probably do the math from there - he wasn't just her first kiss, he was her first... boyfriend. She wasn't exactly 'popular' in Northbrook and her parents were super overprotective so her dad wouldn't have let her date even if there _were_ boys who were interested.

"Really?" He sounded surprised, and seemed to be working out the rest of it in his head.

"When was yours?" Kitty touched his chest, smoothing out an impossible wrinkle from his black AC/DC shirt.

"My what?"

"Your first kiss?"

His expression cleared slightly and he braced his arms against the arm of the couch, looking down at her. He had to think about the answer. "Uh, thirteen... or something like that."

" _Thirteen_?"

"Yeah."

"So I'm... not your first girlfriend?"

"No."

He said that emphatically enough that it made Kitty bristle. She dropped her hand from his chest. If she could've crossed her arms, she would've. "Well, how many girlfriends have you had?"

"Uh..." That many? He couldn't even count them all? "Enough, but c'mon," he saw her face, and tried to salvage the conversation, "They weren't... serious."

"What about us?" she asked, glancing up at him, "Are _we_ serious?" He didn't answer right away and she gave a wry smile, "My friends don't think so." Because she and Lance were so off-and-on, most of the X-Men thought she was a glutton for punishment or... something.

Lance narrowed his eyes. "Do you care what they think?" Kitty looked away and he sighed, muttering, "'Course you do."

"I _do_ , but..." but she was still here with him despite that - because she believed that they were wrong about him. They didn't know him the way that she did, and most of them had never really given him a chance. "But they don't decide who I like. Don't be mad, Lance." She touched his cheek, slid her fingers over the scruff of his chin - he needed to shave - and she pushed his hair out of his eyes.

He looked down at her, at her lips, and he tolerated her messing with his hair which was kind of a big deal. "I'm not mad." His voice was even, but low. The pitch made Kitty's stomach tighten but she forced herself to focus. This was important.

"So?" she asked him, prompting him about the question she'd asked, "Do _you_ think we're serious?"

"What d'you mean?" He was stalling.

"I mean," Kitty got a little frustrated, "When you think about us, what do you _want_?" What did he see for the two of them? Did he think about that kind of stuff?

"You." That's all he said, and then his jaw clenched slightly - like maybe he thought it was a trick question. When she didn't say anything in response, he repeated - looking her straight in the eye, "I want you, Kitty."

"I want you too." The words were barely above a whisper, but it was all the confirmation Lance needed - and he kissed her hard, winding his fingers through her hair. Kitty enthusiastically responded, and she mumbled between kisses that she didn't want to fight anymore and that she missed him. He didn't want to fight with her either. But that's usually how it was - they didn't want to fight _with each other_ but the X-Men and the Brotherhood...

Suddenly, the front door to the boarding house swung open and smashed into the wall loudly.

 _"Yo, anybody home?"_

 _"Knock, knock Lance!_ "

"Oh my god," Kitty gasped. It was Toad. And Blob. Before she could push Lance off of her, Toad bounded into the living room looking just as slimy as ever. He was so _gross_ and sallow-skinned and he smelled, like...

"Heeeey, somebody's gettin' some-"

"Lance, get off!"

"Get out of here!" Lance yelled at Toad as Kitty squirmed out from under him, his expression murderous. A warning quake shuddered through the house and Toad hopped out of the way of a chunk of plaster.

"Man, c'mon, we _live_ here!"

"I thought I told you to _get lost!_ " Lance was on his feet and Kitty was mortified, hurriedly brushing her fingers through her hair and smoothing out her clothes.

"Yeah, you did," Blob joined in, lumbering into the room, "'Til eleven."

"It's _eleven o'clock?_ "

"Can't you read a watch, X-Geek?"

" _Shove off_ , Toad." Another tremor rumbled through the house and Toad retreated.

"Man, _fine_. But this shit is wack."

"Yeah." Blob chorused his disgruntled agreement but even he didn't want to take on Lance. The two of them left the room - but not the house. As Toad hopped upstairs, he ranted to Blob loudly about how 'bros before hoes' didn't mean nothing anymore. And how there weren't enough flies around the restaurant dumpsters in December. _Ugh, gross._

"Lance, I've gotta get home. I'm already late." Kitty scrambled to unplug the Game Cube, and she stuffed that into its box and put the rest of the stuff into her bag: controllers, game case, the extra candles from her little menorah. She was sure that Toad was going to slime all over it but she didn't blow the candles out. It was for Lance.

"Yeah, I know."

"It's kind of lucky they walked in, huh?"

"Yeah. 'Lucky.'" He laid the sarcasm on thick in those two words alone, and she flashed him an uncharacteristically shy smile. He smiled back, some of the aggressive tension easing out of his shoulders. "Here, lemme get that." He took the bag from her and gave the room a once-over to make sure she had everything. Kitty did the same. Then they went out to the jeep.

* * *

Lance took her home and the ride was quiet because neither of them really wanted to make the drive. He put on some music - classic rock, stuff she didn't know, stuff that came out before either of them were born - but he turned off the radio when he parked outside the mansion.

 _11:15_. A quarter past curfew. And even the prospect of the Professor - or worse, Logan - waiting up for her didn't make her bolt out of the passenger's seat. She didn't want to leave. Neither of them said anything for a couple minutes, and Kitty just listened to the idling of the jeep. She glanced sideways at Lance and he looked so serious in profile.

"I had fun tonight," she finally broke the silence, voice subdued. When he looked at her, she smiled.

He smiled back. "Yeah, me too."

"I'm going to miss you over break," she really wanted to see her parents but... she was still going to be bummed on the plane tomorrow. Because she'd be thinking about him.

Lance leaned over and kissed her - and she took that as a 'me too', twisting in her seat to be closer to him. Their relationship _was_ more than making up in the jeep, but that didn't mean she didn't still like it. The kiss lasted until something crackled on the intercom outside the front gate.

What she heard? _"Are you coming in or what?"_ It was Bobby, and with him, people were snickering - probably the New Recruits. She barely heard the message through the window of the passenger's seat, but it was enough to remind her that they had an audience (again).

Kitty broke the kiss with a rueful glance over her shoulder. "I better go," she said. It was almost 11:20 now. She was really pushing it.

"Yeah."

"Call me?"

"When?"

Kitty shrugged. "Whenever. Tomorrow night?"

"Alright."

"I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you later."

It was hard for Kitty to get out of the car, but the front gates swung open for her (which she was grateful for - so she didn't make the same mistake twice with the tech she'd brought from the Institute). She made it two steps before she heard the window roll down behind her. And his voice.

"Hey Kitty."

"Yeah?" She turned to face him, expression questioning.

"Happy Hanukkah."

She smiled at him. "Happy Hanukkah, Lance." She was still smiling after he pulled away from the curb and she walked back to the Institute. Nothing could ruin tonight. It was the best gift she could have asked for.


End file.
